Halloween Marathon: Friday the 13th (2009)

The 12th movie from Friday the 13th franchise! We’re finally here! However, this is not a continuation but rather a remake set in very much the present.  And you know what? I actually know some actors and actresses in this one.  Thats already a good start 🙂 That was literally my reaction when the names were popping up in the opening credits. Silly things to be excited about, but I was.

Let’s check out this remake, shall me?

Director: Marcus Nispel

Cast: Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Derek Mears, Jonathan Sadowski, Julianna Guill, Ben Feldman

Twenty something years has passed since the events of Jason’s drowning and the killings and Pamela Voorhees was murdered on Camp Crystal Lake, the town has been peaceful for ages and many have forgotten the events.  A group of kids go to camp there and eventually get hunted by Jason Voorhess.  All of them go missing.  A few weeks later, one of the girl’s, Whitney (Amanda Righetti) has a brother, Clay (Jared Padalecki) that comes to look for his missing sister to find out what happened and brushes past a group of teens going for a weekend away at one of the guy’s family cabin near Crystal Lake.  As Jason slowly picks down the group, Clay starts following a trail to figure out what happened to Whitney.

Friday the 13th remake in 2009 is a little confusing if I put a little more thought to it.  For one, was the purpose to ignore that the past 11 movies happened and to revamp the franchise completely? I’m not familiar with the franchise so maybe some of you can enlighten me on that.  It might change how I actually feel about it.  However, it does feel like a combination of the 1st and 2nd because we start with Jason and his sack mask.  This one is definitely less effective than the one in Part 2 and it minimizes the death of Pamela Voorhees to emphasize his revenge rampage and they even have the teens mention it to show how no one really remembers or knows about Jason’s existence and Camp Crystal Lake’s happening.

If you remember, because it was the beginning of the month that I reviewed it, I liked Part 2 quite a bit and found the 1st one a little slow and boring.  Friday the 13th remake starts off in an extremely fast pace.  When the beginning sequence ended and Friday the 13th light up the screen, I was thinking that if they kept that pace, we were in for an awesome ride. Especially since the girl who plays Whitney is Amanda Righetti and I love her in The Mentalist.

Except right after that intense opening sequence, things hit the brakes and there was a lot of meaningless build up that didn’t include a lot of Jason’s appearances.  The concept behind searching for the missing persons was a good one.  Eventually, people are bound to search for the reasoning behind their loved ones disappearing.  Plus, the actors include rather more known actors/actresses including Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki, The Flash’s Danielle Panabaker and another little actor in more minor roles called Aaron Yoo.  I couldn’t help to feel good watching just that.  Sure, there were some stupid moments and the pace was really killing the whole atmosphere but when the last quarter or third, it started picking up pace again and things started being a lot more fun to watch all over again.  It helps that the whole searching for a missing person and wondering if they are actually missing is a good premise to work with.

At a certain point, I realized that its really trying to figure out who is the next one to kill or how and when Jason pops up to kill the targeted person.  Its usually pretty easy to figure out the order of the kills but how they do it is pretty different. Its here, I need to stop and talk a little about Jason. If you have just burned through 11 movies with Jason Voorhees, there are a few things you will notice.  For one, the sack mask was better than the hockey mask and they do give Jason here the opportunity of finding that mask and using that instead of his sack over his head.  Not quite as fun as the originals but I’m not too picky on how he finds it.  Next, Jason has ridiculous aim in all the past flicks and in this one, man, he has a sharp eye.  There is one commendable thing about this one and thats the kills.  They are pretty entertaining. Plus, this Jason is pretty effectively creepy especially in that scene next to the lake.

All in all, I liked this one well enough.  The 1980 version has a more campy and low budget feeling to it.  This one covers a bit of the story from the first to the third like sack mask, finding the hockey mask, his mother being beheaded.  Its a different story rebooted in the present.  Jason’s body count doesn’t slow down and the whole opening and ending sequence are extremely entertaining to watch.  There are some corny one liners that might get a chuckle/giggle out of you (as it did for me) and the cast is a good one even if the characters for Friday the 13th are never very deep.  Still, its pretty entertaining.  Maybe its because it lacks the style of the old one and the essence will always be in the original version, but this one does a well enough job as a remake, a whole lot better than I imagined.  Not a whole lot of substance but a ton of entertainment (if that makes sense) 🙂

What did you think about the remake? How many movies of the Friday the 13th franchise of you seen? I’ve heard about favorites, which is your least favorite among the 12 movies?

Thats the end of the main feature of this Halloween Horror Month.  Don’t leave just yet! October 31st isn’t quite here yet and I still have few reviews to go up and don’t forget my Halloween special! I’m not exactly sure what and when it is but it will be there some time on Halloween night, with a little November announcement as always 🙂